The present invention relates generally to agricultural equipment and more particularly to a planter having means for opening a V-shaped furrow trench wherein a seed can be accurately placed and spaced apart from other seeds and subsequently covered with a uniform layer of loose soil to facilitate early germination and uniform emergence.
Conventional planters of today, such as that illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,749,035, issued July 31, 1973 to Cayton et al, utilize runner or disk openers to slice a furrow, gauge wheels positioned rearwardly of the openers to regulate the seed planting depth, and disk covering means coupled with press wheels to cover the seed.
The farmer of today is by necessity a businessman who must compete in the economic marketplace. To effectively compete, a farmer must realize high yields from his fields. Such yields require that seeds planted germinate early and emerge uniformly.
Early and uniform emergence of seeds planted depends upon many factors. However, several of the factors such as uniform depth of planting, soil moisture content and seed cover can be influenced by the methods utilized in planting seeds.
Existing planter opening means include disks and runners. However, both means as they exist today open trenchs, wherein the trench walls often collapse into the trench so that no dependable uniform seed depth can be realized. Additionally, the gauging wheels or gauging means utilized on today's planters are positioned rearwardly of the opening means and do not therefore effectively gauge the actual furrow depth being sliced as the planter unit moves over uneven ground. Neither is the seed deposited in the trench at the precise point where the gauge means operates to assure that the seed is planted to a particular depth.
The typical covering means utilized today includes disks to shove soil over the planted seed and press wheels to firm the soil over the seed. However, this means of covering cannot assure a uniform cover of soil nor a loosely gathered cover of soil through which an emerging plant can easily travel.